Red dress in NOLA - 2

   
   
Rainbow fans slapped    
in a cadence I felt    
in my cheeks    
   
and 80,000    
hot bodies    
sweated and sashayed    
down Bourbon Street    
screaming lyrics    
to whatever song    
each float blasted out    
like it was    
our favorite song ever    
   
I got the Purple Drink    
at the Blacksmith’s    
and lost my friends    
for a while,    
so I screamed with the crowd    
over the brain freeze    
from the slushie    
rum shit in my cup    
   
Fuck it was freeing    
   
I wore cut off jean shorts    
with ass hanging out,    
ankle boots,    
macrame fringe vest    
and a lace bra    
because I have a    
swimmers body    
   
and it cut through    
the crowd like a calm sea    
   
my long torso    
sparkling from    
sweat and    
dances with men    
in glitter and women    
in mesh    
   
I followed the hoarde    
to the end of the    
parade route    
   
and I saw her    
   
Under a fairytale    
midnight of bubbles    
flustering the air    
below the beautiful    
people in their Pride gear.    
   
I saw her,    
poised like a masthead,    
a beacon of sanity    
in a night where    
the veil between    
worlds felt thin.    
   
Mouth open    
Arms out    
Red dress on    
Ready to fuck    
   
I jumped up and down    
 in time to Cher    
belting out    
“Do you believe in    
life after love”    
from a float with a    
drag court    
   
my fist pumping    
drink raised    
to the blow up doll    
on Bourbon.    
   
And everything    
in the fucking world    
was right,    
and for a moment    
I didn’t have to play    
by the rules and    
leave the girl alone    
or wait for the boy    
until the right amount of    
time had passed    
   
I didn’t have to play the    
fucking fool for a crowd    
 
I just had to be    
   
Just be    
   
Like a damn blow up doll    
on a French Quarter balcony    
   
For a moment    
there wasn’t anything    
but the moment    
   
   
for a moment.    
   
   
I believed